Most types of employee training used today are in a state of evolution. Some of these are becoming more popular while others are becoming obsolete. So if your organization wants to know how to improve employee performance then it’s important that its leaders take into account the trends which are affecting personnel training techniques and strategies.
What Are The Trends Affecting the Various Types of Employee Training?
In order to identify the leading types of employee training, it’s important to first talk about the leading trends which affect it. According to Brandon Hall Group’s 2014 Learning and Development Benchmarking Study, 59% of the companies are leveraging social learning activities to improve their personnel’s skills, while 50% have revised or revisited their personnel training strategies less than two times over the last five years. Furthermore, the study also indicates that the leading areas of investment include L&D staff and external consultants, while only about 10% of companies are using mobile and internet based learning solutions, like tracking software or virtual classrooms.
What these numbers mean is that although learning development is slow, most organizations are moving away from traditional learning strategies and towards more innovative learning and training methods. It’s worth mentioning, for example, that social learning activities are quite different from conventional classroom learning methods in the sense that they use different training tools and techniques. For one thing, they involve more social interaction, and have greater emphasis on individual development as opposed to group efficiency.
Furthermore, according to the results of the study, employee training is still more or less reliant on an even mix of in-house L&D staff and external consultants. So even though the transition from traditional classroom techniques is relatively slow, and companies which overwhelmingly use mobile learning strategies are still a minority, employee training techniques are clearly moving towards a certain direction.
Which Training Methods Are Most Popular Based On the Latest Trends?
Based on what we’ve learned from the Brandon Hall Group’s study, we can draw certain conclusions. Corporate training is changing, but the change is slow. Furthermore, the adoption of mobile learning is a lot slower than the adoption of social learning techniques. Using these conclusions, we can assume that the leading types of employee training include the following:
– Role Playing – Management Games – Outdoor Training – Case Studies – Coaching/Mentoring – On-the-Job Training (With Strong Social Support)
These types of employee training techniques are geared towards learning through action and interaction, which means that they are the types of learning methods which are most well adapted to the changing trends in personnel training. Although some may be disappointed that mobile learning is not as popular as it’s perceived to be, it’s clear that employee training is changing at a consistent rate.
Conclusion
There are many ways to improve personnel training. Aside from actual training, organizations can also use training tools, such as employee training tracking software and databases for case studies. Likewise, they can also promote ideas on how to improve employee performance. However, regardless of which training techniques you wish to use for your organization’s training programs, you will need to consider long term trends with regards to employee training and development, as they will play a big role in the effectiveness of your personnel. So remember that although there are many types of employee training, organizations also need to be dynamic when it comes to training their employees.